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Today, 3 November, is the feast of ... * Winifred or Gwenfrewi, virgin and martyr (c. 650) - fleeing from a chieftan from Hawarden, he caught up to her and sliced off her head; he was swallowed up by the earth on the spot, and where her head fell there arose a stream with red-streaked pebbles (St Winifred's Well); this site became extremely popular for pilgrims (as late as 1774, Dr Johnson saw people bathing there) * Rumwald (seventh century?) - born to the royal house of Northumbria; when soon after his birth he was baptized by a bishop, the baby pronounced his own profession of faith, and died soon afterward (but not before preaching to his parents) * Hubert, bishop of Liege (727) - founder of the city and diocese of Liege - with St Eustace, he is the patron saint of hunters, and is invoked against rabies * Pirminus, bishop (753) - traditionally regarded as founder of abbey of Reichenau, on an island in Lake Constance -- the oldest Benedictine house in Germany * Amicus (c. 1045) - a secular priest of Camerino, he became a solitary in Abruzzo before joining the monastery of Fonte Avellana (recently founded by St Dominic of Sora) * Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh (1148) - a close friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, he died in the abbot's arms; canonized by Clement III in 1190 (first canonized Irishman) - supposed author of a hilariously bad set of prophecies regarding the popes from his days to the end of time; according to the prophecies, there are only two more popes to come * Alpais, virgin (1211) - born in diocese of Orleans, she was unable to move; yet, she was so holy and fasted so much (drinking nothing and eating only the Eucharist), the archbishop William of Sens arranged for a church to be built next to her lodging - her hagiographer was a Cistercian monk who knew her personally * Ida of Toggenburg, matron (1226) - although the great Bollandist scholar Delehaye says that all we know about Ida is that she was buried at Fischingen and her anniversary was kept there on this day, she was the subject of an interesting 'romance' with the 'happy ending' of her living in a cave for 17 years before telling her husband she really did not want to see him, upon which she joined a nunnery at Fischingen * Simon of Rimini (1319) - Dominican laybrother who acted as gardener; walked through the streets of Rimini holding a cross and calling the children to catechism; big on self-discipline with an iron chain * * * * * * * * * * * * * George Ferzoco %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%